Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1887-12-28
FOOD FOR NovELlSTS.
Leaves From the Life of an Actress Now
Residing I'm Florida.

Leaves From the Life of an Actress Now
Residing i'm Florida.
In one of the suburbs of Jacksonville,
saws a letter to the st. Louis Globe Demo-
crdt. sands little unpretentious dwell
ing, which has for an inmate woman
who has had a most checkered career.
Rumors of this woman's experiences
reached reporter, and he determined to
investigate ths truth OF them. A short
walk brought the writer TO the house, and
knock brought the object of his search
TO the door.
She was a woman who had passed the
prime of life. and her face in her youth
must have been beautiful. 1t was now
furrowed with deep lines of care and sor-
row. Her once raven black hair, which
was wound carelesslv around her head,
was streaked with silver, and though her
hands We're small aud delicately shaped,
the shrunken flesh told too plainly tale of
hunger and SUFFERING. There she stood;
her eyes, which could at times fash fire
as some memory of former wrongs fitted
across her mind, turned with startled
expression on the intruder, whose curiosi-
ty had led him to her home. But as he
dotfed his hat and greeted the strange
woman with a kindly "good morning."
the flashing orbs filed with a softer glow,
and with the bow of Duchess she re-
turned the salutation, aud invited the
newspaper man inside.
The visitor managed to explain his er-
rand with difficulty, and even then, by
the flash of the black eve, he saw that she
resented the intrusion. But after a short
talk the thread of the convers alton was
gradually led back to herself, and she
gave the following sensational account of
herself:
81 am of English birth. My father, who
once bore the honored title of the Earl of
Hereward, but who was then an officer in
the guards, wooed and won my mother, at
that time very popular actress, playing
at Drury Lane Theater. The marriage, or
rather mock marriage, for my father heart
lessly deceived my mother, took place in a
little country village near London, and as
NV father said he feared his father, the
old Earl, would disinherit him if he heard
of his action, he prevailed on my mother
to live in retirement, promising that as
soon as possible he would declare to the
world tho true state of affairs. l was the
sole issue of this union, and month after
month passed and the plausible guards
nan prevailed on my trustful mother that
The time was not ripe vet for disclosure.
1t was soon the same old story.
"At first no one could have bsen more
devoted than my father; then, as time
wore on, his visits to our little home be-
came less frequent, and finally ceased al
together. NV mother, in deep Distress
'ough the presence of the old Earl, and
then t. HIM the whole story, but he re-
fused to believe her, and drove her from
bis door. In her anguish she sought her
husbands regiment, but found he had ex.
changed and gone to India. Selling the
baubles that he had given her in the
halcyon days of their early happiness,
she took me with her. and we sailed for
the gorgeous East but found, alas, toe
late, that her truant husband had fallen
in an affray with some mountain tribes in
the interior.
"ln her despair my mother took poison
and died, leaving me in a little Hill station.
where an officers wife adopted me, and
cared for me as her own child. I was
sent home to England. and, after being
educated, concluded to foil ow my mothers
profession and become an actress"
In vivid word language she then de-
picted her own life. A rich Russian noble
deceived her, and when she resented his
wrongs he sent her to Siberia on a false
charge of being a Nihiist. Her escape
and the vicissitudes she encountered be.
fore she reached America would fill
volume, but were told with a sngularlv
truthful air. She came here some months
ago, and has eluded observation until
now. She keeps perfectly secluded. and
evinced a desire to be unknown. Sc
far. not a dozen people here know of her
residence or her history. Certainly truth
is stranger than fiction.